The Corpse of Inês de Castro

It's called Immortality, a Love Story, and it's the sequel to the book I wrote called Anatomy, a love story all about a young woman who wants to be a surgeon in the early eighteen hundreds in Scotland, and a lot of characters actually that I've covered on this podcast appear in Immortality. So if you like this podcast, please preorder. It makes a huge amount of difference and I would really appreciate it. If you also want to support the show in other ways, we have a Patreon and March available.

Those links are in the bio, but the best support is just that you're listening to the show, So thank you so much. Before we get started this week, I just want to give a quick content warning for some listeners who might be sensitive. This episode has um, particularly gruce Um, Blood and Gore in detail, and so some listener discretion is advised. On a night in the year thirteen sixty King Pedro the First of Portugal sat down in his castle's dining hall in sent o m for

what he expected to be an especially satisfying meal. Servants walked in with platters piled high with assorted meats, while bottles of wine were being brought forth for the king's approval. Though despite the extravagant spread, it quickly became apparent to all in the room that the king didn't have much

interest in the feast laid out before him. Between the softly taken footsteps of servers and the muted clatter of cutlery against serving dishes, the air that was hanging in the dining hall that evening was charged with a layer of antis A patient Those in the room attempted to maintain the facade of normalcy, but at the center of it all, the king sat motionless, his vacant gaze unmoving as plate after plate of untouched food arrived in front

of him. Perhaps the king wasn't looking at his plate so much as he was staring at the knife next to it, watching the metal glint invitingly in the flickers of candlelight around the room. Or maybe he was distracted by the empty chair next to him the space that had once upon a time been reserved for his queen, his beloved, and as de Castro, the woman who continued to hold his heart, even if he could only see her in the negative spaces that, even five years after

her death persist did inexorably like an opened wound. Whatever was holding the King's attention during that dinner, the audible trail of footsteps echoing from beyond the dining hall quickly shifted his focus back into the present, His eyes locked onto the door with newfound excitement, just as the entry gave way and his guards at long last brought in the final two dinner guests that the king had been waiting for that evening, though really King Pedro had been

waiting for these two men for the better part of five years. The two guests in question were Alvaro Gonzales and Pero Coilo, two of the men responsible for the brutal murder of the King's beloved and as to Castro in thirteen fifty five. After years of searching, King Pedro had finally managed to track two of the assas essence down, bringing them back to Portugal to stand trial for their crimes.

Of course, the main perpetrator in his love's murder was Pedro's own father, King Alfonso the Fourth, but considering that the late king had died in thirteen fifty seven, there was little more Pedro could do to punish his father from this side of the earthly plane. Gonsalves and Quelo, however, were still very much alive in offense that King Pedro sought to rectify personally. There was little struggle from the men as the armed guards marched them into the hall.

After all, upon their return to Portugal, a trial had swiftly concluded that both men were guilty of murder. Their fates had been sealed from that moment, their deaths assured. All that was left was to face their sentence, though I imagine their sense of res all all but crumbled

upon hearing their king's plans for them. That evening, as the men were held helplessly at the King's mercy, Pedro looked down at the killers with the same cold stare they had likely given his beloved Inez before repeatedly running their swords through her chest. The vacant expression that the king had held at the beginning of the meal was long gone. Vengeance was now clearly burning through all other thoughts behind his eyes. For the murder of his wife,

Pedro's punishment was as simple as it was brutal. The men were to have their hearts cut out of their chests. For a moment. No one moved two, stunned by the king's decree to see it put into action. For only a moment, though then the guards descended upon the men, and the room could do nothing but watch on in horror as the stones on the dining room floor were painted in crimson, the walls echoing an endless echo of

the criminal's blood curdling screams. When the bodies were finally relieved of their now unbeating hearts, the hall likewise fell silent. The only sound was then the scrape of knife on plait as King Petrow finally dug into the dinner in front of him. If Pedro noticed a change in the air, he did not let on. But then again, maybe he had found comfort in the grotesque display of violence he

had enacted. His in nas may have been gone, but at least now he wasn't the only man to know how it felt to live without a heart in his chest. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood. Outside of Portugal, the infamous love story of Pedro the First and an

esde Castro rarely finds its way into popular discourse. With so few primary sources on the subject, let alone English translations of scholarship available for public consumption, it makes sense that the tale of these two ill fated lovers remains outside of Portugal relatively unknown, but within Portugal itself, the legend of their love story and the ties they have

to Portugal's medieval history makes them household names. To better understand the context during which their story takes place, I want to give you a very brief summary of what was happening in Portugal, or more accurately, the Kingdom of

Portugal in the fourteenth century. During this time, the Iberian Peninsula, or what we today typically think of as Spain and Portugal, was comprised of four kingdoms, which for the sake of time I won't go into too deeply, except for the two which relate to that of our lovers, the Crown

of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal. By thirteen forty, the two kingdoms could only be described as having a begrudgingly tolerable relationship Back in thirty eight, King Alfonso the fourth of Portugal had sent his daughter Maria of Portugal to be married to the King of Castile, which, rather than unifying their kingdoms as one might hope a marriage, would only serve to create a larger rift between them.

This was largely due to Alfonso the Fourth receiving reports that his daughter was being mistreated by the King of Castile, who, quite after their union, began to pretty immediately take up with a mistress. In retaliation, Alfonso the Fourth arranged for his son Pedro the First of Portugal to marry a Castilian noble woman named Costanza Manuel. For those curious as to why this specific union would be considered a retaliation, Costanza was, funnily enough, the King of Castile's first wife.

Costanza's father had arranged her marriage with the Castilian king when she was just nine years old, which meant that when the previously mentioned daughter of Alfonso the Fourth of Portugal was presented as another possible wife for him, the king promptly annulled their unconsummated marriage so he could wed Maria of Portugal instead. So really, in other words, Costanza was the jilted first wife of the King of Castile, who then chose Alfonso's daughter instead. It's a little complicated,

but I think you the basic picture. Cut to a few years later, and the King of Castile is suddenly faced with the consequences of his actions in the form of his current and former father in law's deciding to unite their collective hatred of him with the strategic marriage between his own ex wife, Constanta Manuel and the future

King of Portugal, Pedro the First. Now, I'm going to fast forward a bit because the ensuing war and ultimate peace treaty don't exactly serve the story in any significant way. But from this web of marriages and political ally ship, I think the two most important points to take away from this are one, regardless of treatise, tensions between the Crown of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal, we're fraying

dangerously thin. And two, in thirteen forty, Alfonso's son Pedro would marry Costanza Manuel, which is where our story truly begins, because when Constanza arrived in Portugal, she did so with her lady in waiting, a Galician noblewoman by the name of Inez de Castro. Now, unfortunately for poor Costanza neither her first nor second marriage were destined to be fairytale romances. In fact, almost as soon as she arrived at court with Annez and how Pedro all but cast her aside

in favor of her lady in waiting. He of course still performed his marital duties so as to secure himself an heir to the Portuguese throne. But that was about the extent of Pedro and his wife's relationship. As you can probably imagine, poor Costanza was less than thrilled with this development. Yes, she was set to become the future Queen of Portugal and her son would one day become king,

but she played this game once before. One annulment later, and Costanza knew all too well how precarious her seemingly cemented place in court really was. So in an effort to keep Annez from continuing her affair with Pedro, in thirteen forty four, Costanza made a strategic decision and named

Inez her newborn child's godmother. Now this may seem counterintuitive, doesn't it make Annez and her husband even closer, But in the context of medieval Portuguese and Catholic traditions, naming someone a godparent to their child essentially made them family, which meant that in one move, Costanza changed Pedro and and As his relationship from an extramarital affair to scandalous

lye incestuous. It was a simple and effective solution that could have even worked had her son not tragically passed away just eight days after he was born. As it was, her son's death brought further suspicion upon Inez by the

Portuguese court. King Alfonso the Fourth was not blind to what was happening between his son and his wife's lady in waiting, and though he had been unhappy with his son's choice and mistress, he had initially dismissed the affair, hoping it was simply lust and it was clouding his

son's judgment only temporarily. However, after the death of Costanza's firstborn son, the son to which Anez had been made godmother, the son keeping Pedro and Anez a part, Alfonso was now powerless to stop the rumors that began to stir at court. How had the child died, hadn't poor Constanza named that Harlot the godmother wasn't at all a bit

too convenient? For years, King Alfonso had allowed Pedro to carry on with Anez, but as the rumor mill continued to speculate, the king decided it was finally time to take action, and he banned and As from court. And that should have been it, at least it would have been if their affair had simply been driven by lust. But when Annez was driven away from court, the strength of her and Pedro's love, if anything, became more apparent.

In some versions of their story, While Annez was away, Pedro wrote to her through small messages, which he sent through a channel of water that went between their two residences. To Alfonso's dismay, the distance between the two did nothing to diminish their devotion to one another, a fact that became all too apparent when in thirteen forty nine, Constanza Manuel died at just thirty three years old from complications

following the birth of her fourth child. As the country mourned the loss of their Infanta or princess, King Alfonso really should not have been that surprised to find that his son had almost immediately left court to find Inez, without any marital obligations now barring him from seeing her, Pedro and Inez were finally free to be together, and together they were. They weren't married. Their relationship would never be accepted by King Alfonso, but Pedro and Inez would

go on to have three healthy children. They were happy together, at least until thirteen fifty four, when they're happily ever after came to an abrupt and brutal end when it came to his son. King Alfonso the Fourth of Portugal was running out of options for years following Costanza's death, Alfonso attempted to find another suitable marriage for his son, but Pedro refused to hear a word of it. Meanwhile, Alfonso's royal advisers reported back rumors that had been floating

around court. People couldn't help but compare the sickly and weak son Ferdinand, that Pedro had had with his wife Costanza, a legitimate son, with the three strong and healthy but illegitimate children that Pedro had with Annez. Equally troubling were the rumors that Inez's Castilian brothers were spending considerable time in the Prince's ear, tempting him to intercede on their

behalf in Castilian Civil War. Surely, Anez was poisoning Pedro with these thoughts biasing the prince in favor of Castile. Up until this point, King Alfonso had at best tolerated

and as his presence in his son's life. But with threats to the Portuguese line of succession coming into question, plus the ever growing potential for an all out civil war that could possibly end with the Kingdom of Portugal in the hands of the Castilian crown, Alfonso could no longer a forward to ignore this young woman who had stolen his son's heart, and so, at the urging of his royal advisers, King Alfonso, along with a traveling party

that included both Alvaro Gonzales and Paroquelo, made their way to Combra to carry out the assassination of Annez de Castro. It's impossible to say exactly how events unfolded in Coimbra that day. Later, dramatization of Ineza's death would imply that in As sat at King Alfonso's feet begging for her life. Some would say the king began to sympathize with her as one of her children was in the room with them, watching on in terror, helpless to stop what would inevitably

come to pass. For no matter if an As sat at the king's feet, nor if she pleaded for her life, the end result remained the same. In the fame Is Portuguese epic poem, Ois Lucida's author Louise vas Jacomas wrote of her death quote, Thus, Annez, while her eyes to have an appeal, resigned her bosom to the murdering steel, that snowy neck was stained with, spouting gore another sword. Her lovely bosom tore so from her cheeks. The roses died away and pale in death. The beauteous Annez lay.

On January seven, fifty five, Ines de Castro, mother of three and the great love of Pedro of Portugal's life, was stabbed to death by the order of Pedro's father, King Alfonso the Fourth. The king may not have swung the blade that took an As his life, but when news of his father's betrayal finally reached Pedro, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that his anst was gone, that she had been brutally taken from the earth at the hands of his own father, and he was going

to make him pay. If Alfonso had hoped, and as his absence would quell Pedro's desire to begin a civil war, he was sorely mistaken. Within days of her death, Pedro had summoned an army to go to war against his own father. It was only at the urging of the only existing neutral party between them, Pedro's mother and Alfonso's wife, Queen Beatrice, that the two men were able to stop the fighting. At the queen's behest, father and son signed

a treaty of peace between them. But if this episode's introduction was anything to go by, I'm guessing you already know that the piece was just about the last thing on Pedro's mind. It wouldn't be until two years later, in thirteen fifty seven, when Alfonso died and Pedro ascended to the Portuguese throne, that the young king could begin to enact his re venge and at long last find the justice he longed for. For Aness. His first order of business tracking down the men responsible for her murder.

While his men searched far and wide for any trace of the assassins, The now King Pedro the First enacted the second order of business he had, commissioning the creation of two tombs, one for himself and one for his beloved Inez. After her death, Ines had been buried in Coimbra. The location of her remains likely chosen out of convenience rather than geographical significance. But then again, Inez and Pedro

technically had no official ties to one another. They had three children together, but in the eyes of the Catholic Church and by extension, Portugal as a whole, and as to Castro, technically meant nothing, which was exactly In thirteen sixty, Pedro would announce to the world a secret that would

irrevocably alter the course of Portuguese history. A few months after he ordered the death of and As his assassins, with the hollow ache no doubt still lingering in his chest, Pedro revealed that seven years earlier, he and and Az were married in a secret ceremony, meaning not only had his father killed the woman he loved, but the king had also murdered what would have been Portugal's future queen. For centuries, the validity of Pedro's secret marriage claims have

been subject to debate. After all, if you're a king and you get married in a forest and no one's around to witness it, does it still hold up in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Some chroniclers from the time contested the union's legitimacy, but ultimately their doubt would be a foot note in the history books, especially when the true intentions behind the now king's posthumous wedding announcements were revealed and the now widowed king had his late

wife exhumed from her grave on Combrian soil. With his wife's killers now brutally dead and his healthy children's legitimacy secured, King Pedro set out to complete his final act of revenge against his father. Now there comes a point in stories like this that the mythos surrounding the facts often begin to outshine the reality of the events themselves. Sometimes a lack incredible sources inspires others to make up histories of their own. Some stories that, while not exactly factual,

no doubt, make for a great story. In the case of Pedro exhuming his wife's corpse, some say that upon his ascension to the throne, the king was so maddened in his all consuming grief that he ordered his men to disenter Inez so that they could prop up her

body on the throne beside him as his queen. They say that Pedro had her dressed in the finest robes and laid a crown upon her head, demanding members of his court approached the throne so they could kiss what was left of in iss weathered hand as a way to pay homage to their would be queen. And to be fair, this maccab display of fealty is rather on brand for King Pedro. This is the man, after all, who murdered his wife's killers by cutting out their hearts.

But in reality, and as his disinterment likely, had little to do with forcing members of the court to bow at his late wife's ornately dressed corpse, and more to do with the two tombs Pedro had commissioned as soon as he had ascended to the throne, for in the end, Pedro's final act of defiance against his father, as well as his final act of love for his late wife, lay within the twin tombs he planned to share with his beloved Today, if you walked into the Cistercian Abbey

of Alcobasa, you would be immediately taken in by the incredible display of Gothic Cistercian architecture. Impossibly high, rib vaulted ceilings would greet you as you passed through the monastery's doors. They're intimidating heights, subconsciously leading you down the nave toward

the main chapel at the structure's end. And if you were a tourist, after finding your way to the end of the monastery's pews, you would most likely notice the crowds acting, not gathering to view the main chapel under a halo of skylights, but gathering in two corners of

the transept on either side of you. Upon closer inspection, you would notice the onlookers gathered around two intricately carved white stone tombs, the chamber to the right holding the tomb of King Pedro, the first of Portugal, and to the left, mirroring it perfectly just steps away from her husband, his wife Inez de Castro, in direct defiance of his father, Pedro's final declaration of love for an Az was not made in hate or violence, but in a gesture that

married his grief with his hope for the future. By claiming Anaz as his wife, Pedro finally had sufficient grounds to exhume her body and give her the burial she rightly deserved the areal of a queen. When the elaborate tombs he had commissioned were finished some time between thirteen

sixty one and thirteen sixty three. Pedro had and As his remains disinterred and brought all the way from Coimbra to Alcabasa, a nearly seventy mile journey from there, and as his body was put inside of one of the two intricately carved tombs and placed in the abbey where she awaited the day the other matching tomb would carry the body of her beloved and the two of them

would be together once more. But even with the inherent romance of matching tombs aside, what Pedro did for and Ez goes far beyond just securing a place for their bodies to finally be together, To briefly bring you back to the main chapel in Alcabasa for a moment. The intricate images carved into an ASA's tomb are beautiful, yes, but they serve a specific purpose as well. Scenes from the life and death of Christ are carved into the side of her tomb in unspoken analogy between the two figures,

being presented like an offering to the viewer. Both the castro and the Portuguese coat of arms adorn her final resting place. But the greatest gift Pedro gave an as his legacy is perhaps the simplest addition to the otherwise incredibly intricate sculpture work. On the lid of her tomb, a stone likeness of Annez herself is laid out on top of the very vessel which contains her earthly remains.

What stands out about her stone counterpart is not her serene expression, nor the items placed in her hands, but the crown placed atop her head. When Pedro revealed his secret marriage with an As to the world, he knew there would be skeptics who would never see her as their queen. But in this one detail, Pedro all but wrote her legacy in stone for generations to come. As long as stone anyone who came to the Alcabasa would see his truth. It was in Nez, not Costanza, who

was his wife. It was in Nez who was his queen even in death. And though their individual tombs hold differing images, both are inscribed with the same words that echo across the stone floors where they lay together, words that translate from the Portuguese to mean until the end of the world. That's the tragic love story of Pedro, the first of Portugue and in Nasda Castro. But stick around to hear how their love story has evolved over

the centuries. Although the tale of Pedro and Andez has largely evaded English speaking audiences in pop culture, I think it's worth it to analyze why their story, and particularly in Nez's presence as a tragic figure, has persisted in cultural iconography in Portugal and Western Europe. Of course, the story itself has everything you could ever want in a tragic love story slash episode of noble blood, romance, betrayal, vengeance, his and her tombs, to say nothing of the macabre

idea of a disinterred corpse sitting on a throne. But in all seriousness, what I find most interesting about most interpretations of Pedro and and AS's love story is the inherent lack of an Ez that they all seem to share. What I mean by that is, when conducting research for this episode, I found little to no information on who and Asta Castro was as a person, only how she

related to Pedro's story. Other than the physical manifestation of their love in their three living children, any love the couple shared is expressed through Pedro's grief and rage, not through any sort of interaction between the two, which does make sense since the majority of their story takes place after she dies. But that's another thing, isn't it. The love story of Pedro an Andez is not so much

about their love as it is about her death. Any characterizations that are given to her are on the whole that she was pious and self sacrificing, but there's little to no evidence that she was either of those things, unless you assigned them as reactions she may have had to the acts of violence taken against her. It's a sad truth that and As his presence in her own story mattered more when she was a corpse than when

she was alive. But then again, it's not like treating women as blank slates in which to project a man. Story is something we haven't seen before. But who knows, maybe after seven hundred years, someone will finally given as to cast the chance to tell her own story. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Words. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston.

Hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thayne and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.